New Website for Northern Kentucky History the Last Streetcar

Bulletin of the Kenton County Historical Society Website: www.kentoncountyhistoricalsociety.org Email: [email protected] P.O. Box 641, Covington, Kentucky 41012-0641 (859) 491-4003 July / August 2013 The Last Streetcar Covington Welcomes Liberty Bell Patricia Scott: All-American Girls Professional Baseball League New Website for Northern Kentucky History www.kentoncountyhistoricalsociety.org The Last Streetcar John E. Burns1 The year of 1890 was an eventful one for the A number of separate companies had been Covington area and indeed, for all of Kentucky. Dur- chartered to serve the various neighborhoods. The ing that year the city observed its anniversary [75 oldest of these, the Covington Street Railway Com- years], and April 9th marked the 25th anniversary of pany was commonly known as the White Line be- the Union’s victory at Appomattox Court House. cause of the color of its cars. The Covington & Cin- On May 23rd the Kentucky legislature incorporated cinnati Street Railway Company, chartered in 1870, Bromley, while an act to incorporate Holmesdale won was known as the Yellow Line, while the South Cov- the approval of the state senate, only to then become ington & Cincinnati Street Railway Company, which stalled. was chartered in 1876, adopted green as its distin- guishing color. On May 24th the outstanding thoroughbred, Bill Letcher, won the Latonia Derby; on September 8th The South Covington & Cincinnati Street Kentucky’s Constitutional Convention opened; and a Railway Company was undoubtedly the most aggres- week later, on September 15th, the Kentucky Post be- sive of the numerous local companies, and it was no gan publication. It sold for one-cent a copy. sooner chartered than it proceeded to acquire the Covington & Cincinnati Street Railway Company. It The day after the first appearance of the Ken- then proceeded to win a measure of approval from tucky Post, all of Covington was amazed by the sight of the city’s Irish by promptly changing the color of the an electric-powered streetcar making its first test run newly-acquired yellow cars to its own favored green. over the city’s streets. Even though it was nearly 11:00 P.M. when the run was made, good-natured The South Covington continued its policy of crowds lined the streets to heartily cheer the car acquiring the other companies so that by 1883 it had throughout its route. The brightly lit car’s perform- gained complete control over all such transit facilities ance was jubilantly declared to be perfect and without in the city and was working toward doing the same in any serious defects. neighboring Newport. In the summer of 1889, city officials authorized the line’s management to convert Expansion of the city’s corporate limits and its cars to electricity, yet it was not until September the growth of its various neighborhoods received a 16, 1890 that the first test run of such a streetcar was sharp impetus with the arrival of electricity and the made. electrification of its streetcar lines. Indeed, the spread of such transportation systems in America’s The city’s lawmakers had decreed that the cities had been nothing short of phenomenal. It was new cars would not be driven at a speed of more than in 1887 that the nation’s first electrified line began at 10 miles an hour, and the wisdom of this became ap- Richmond, Virginia, and within the next three years parent on the second night of the test runs. This more than 5,000 miles of electric streetcar lines were time, the motorman on one of the cars stepped up operating in 51 cities, including Covington. the speed as he was racing over Pike Street toward Madison Avenue. He made the turn onto Madison Prior to electricity, horse and mule-drawn without reducing his car’s speed, and, according to streetcar service had seen such a growth throughout one observer, received “a good shaking up” when it the city that at one time it was said that as many as jumped the track. No serious harm was done, and 500 cars were crossing the Suspension Bridge every the car was returned to its track and “continued on as day. if nothing had happened.” 2 Above: Electric Greenline Streetcar, with William Broderick, motorman, and C. Forsett, Conductor. On the cover: Streetcar in front of old Federal Building, circa 1892 images courtesy: Kenton County Public Library Once again the new cars were proclaimed an though, the first such car did not cross the Ohio until unqualified success. Critics of the city administration nearly mid-January of 1891. were quick to excuse the derailment by pointing out that “the tracks, mainly due to the wretched condi- Eventually, in 1892, the South Covington & tion of the streets, are in bad condition.” The new Cincinnati Street Railway Company merged with two cars won the praise of the entire community, and on Newport streetcar companies to form the Cincinnati, their first Sunday in operation attracted throngs of Newport & Covington Railway Company. The the curious. On Madison Avenue, the cars were merger also gave the new company the capital stock hooked together in tandems of two, and like those on of all remaining local companies, and marked the be- the Main Street line, were literally filled with human- ginning of the area’s most extensive period of transit ity throughout the day. development. The entire system of tracks was rebuilt and enlarged, and on February 5, 1893 the last of the It was later announced that every effort would horse and mule powered cars was taken out of ser- be made to have the electric cars running to Cincin- vice. That was when two of the company’s favorite nati by Christmas. Because of unexpected problems mules, “Wildcat” and “Ginger,” pulled the last such 3 car into the car barn, and 225 mules were dismissed The new electric cars, it should be noted, from their jobs. The newly-formed Cincinnati, New- sometimes proved to be an aid to expediting the flow port & Covington Street Railway, or C.N.&C., re- of traffic in a most unexpected way. Heavy wagons tained the South Covington line’s color of green for often became mired in the deep mud of unpaved its cars, and throughout the remainder of its existence streets and on many occasions the electric cars, mov- was popularly known as the Green Line. ing easily on their smooth rails, were called upon to help the struggling, overburdened horses disengage The electric car routes which crossed into their loads from the muck. Cincinnati continued using Fountain Square as their northernmost stop until 1921 when the Dixie Termi- There were those individuals, however, who nal was completed and began use as the Ohio turn- continued to lament the passing of the horse and around point. As an Ohio based corporation, the car mule drawn streetcars from the scene. For some it company’s management also decided to continue car- represented an exchange of a quieter and more lei- rying the name, South Covington & Cincinnati surely era for one lacking in certain intangible ameni- Street Railway, on its local cars until 1922 when the ties. They kept a fond remembrance of the sounds of name was finally replace by the C.N.&C. logo. tinkling bells which decorated the car company’s horses and mules. To them, the electric car’s loud Local residents developed a remarkable “CLANG” was a step backward. Future generations, amount of pride in their new streetcars and at least however, came to enjoy the raucous “CLANG, one newsman expressed compassion for residents of CLANG” and would recall it with nostalgia when it the Ohio side of the river who, he felt, would surely too, passed from the local scene. be moved to jealously at the sight of the new Ken- tucky cars. “People of Cincinnati,” he wrote, “have The era of the electric streetcars’ regular ser- been so accustomed to riding old, dilapidated and vice ended in Kentucky on Sunday morning, July 2, filthy cars that the brand new, clean and roomy cars 1950 when Green Line double-truck car number 513 from the progressive City of Covington might create made the last run on the Ft Mitchell line. Operated some jealousy.” by Elmer Denigen of 1503 Scott Street, it was sched- uled to leave the Dixie Terminal at 12:05 A.M. and The newsman proved to be somewhat of a arrive at the end of its line 32 minutes later. From prophet, for in May of 1895 the local streetcar com- there, Denigen took the now-historic streetcar to the pany was asked not to send its special party car, the Madison Avenue car barn for the very last time. Blue Grass, into Cincinnati because “…the people will soon be clamoring for one.” Later, a ceremonial parade of old streetcars and newly-acquired buses took place. Then, an an- Still, these early electric cars, like the horse tique parlor car was retired to a Devou Park museum and mule drawn cars, pre-dated the city’s 1896 law where a correct, but highly misleading sign was placed requiring that any car which was operated during the alongside it declaring it to be the last streetcar to op- months of November through March be equipped erate in all of Kentucky. with an enclosed front vestibule. The job of the The fleet of large, double-truck cars now met driver or motorman on the open vestibule cars could the ignominious fate of being sold for a variety of be unusually strenuous during winter when bone- uses, including those of rabbit hutches, tool sheds, chilling winds struck.

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